How do you create a high-value digital product for children? What does a high-value product for kids mean? In my presentation, I will talk about the Pomelody app and about the work of a multi-person team on a product whose audience is children treated as users who deserve a top-quality product. I will also discuss the entire design process.
Watch this WaysConf session, then continue with related talks or explore the current programme.
A product-design case study about creating high-quality music experiences for children without lowering artistic standards or ignoring parents. The talk begins with the intimidating conventions of art institutions, then defines Pomelody through creative freedom, sensitivity, and an aesthetic environment. Designing music involves constraints and deliberate choices just as interface work does. Physical products, an app, and visual references help the team compare quality at scale. The product promise—music for children that adults love—requires treating children as serious users while recognizing that parents choose, participate, and shape the home experience.
Unspoken rules about behavior and belonging can make music and cultural experiences feel inaccessible before they begin.
Watch from 2:14The product environment should invite children to create while treating visual and musical quality as meaningful inputs.
Watch from 7:17Music is created through requirements, constraints, structure, and iteration rather than appearing outside a design process.
Watch from 12:29Products, screens, and comparative examples help teams examine scale, contrast, and how quality travels across formats.
Watch from 17:31Children use the experience directly while parents choose, listen, pay, and judge whether it belongs in family life.
Watch from 29:16These concise notes were edited from automatic captions and checked against the talk structure. They are not a verbatim transcript.
A first visit to a concert hall can raise questions about clothing, applause, movement, and belonging before anyone hears the music. These unwritten rules are part of the experience. Products that introduce children and families to art should reduce unnecessary intimidation while preserving the depth and quality that make the cultural encounter worthwhile.
Watch from 2:14Children benefit from space to invent, but freedom does not require careless visual or musical material. Sensitivity, aesthetics, and thoughtful constraints can give exploration a richer foundation. The team’s role is to create tools and content that respect children’s imagination rather than using childishness as permission for low-quality execution.
Watch from 7:17A musical piece is shaped by audience, form, duration, instruments, emotion, and technical requirements. Seeing this as a design process reveals opportunities for research and iteration without reducing art to a formula. The comparison helps multidisciplinary teams discuss how creative judgment and product responsibility can coexist.
Watch from 12:29A family may encounter the brand through an application, printed material, a physical object, or the music itself. Scale and contrast change between these formats, but the experience should retain recognizable care. Comparative references and real prototypes help the team judge whether the intended quality is visible outside the design file.
Watch from 17:31Children are direct users with their own preferences and agency, while adults select products, provide access, listen repeatedly, and decide whether the experience fits family life. Designing only for the purchaser produces a weak child experience; ignoring the parent threatens adoption. Research and product decisions should represent both roles without treating either as a proxy for the other.
Watch from 29:16
